They used to. Now they just buy the gold and experience necessary to advance. Somehow, it hasn't dawned on these people that if you're using money to skip significant amounts of the game content, you should probably go find a better game to play.

In some of the games, you can be in an area with 200 people and be the only non-farmer or non-bot there. It's pretty sad.

Back when I was playing WoW (close to when it just came out) you knew the gold-farmers because they had Chinese names, spoke Chinese, and spent every waking moment in an area farming the exact same creatures. I picked up enough Chinese to be friendly to one of them (also a rogue) and say hello as we both farmed in an area - him for gold, myself for a rare crafting schematic. I'd help if he needed it and sometimes he'd help me. I guess I impressed enough of them in whatever hellhole they operate out of that occasionally one of them would run up to me and offer to trade me some bandages or just say hi.

I thought they were just friendly. Turns out I was probably their only non-beating interaction of the day. It also sets in now that my activity I used to do for fun was the exact same activity that some people do to avoid being beaten to death.

"Liu Dali, who was imprisoned at the camp between 2004 and 2007 for "illegally petitioning" federal authorities about corruption in his local government, said he was forced to play the game at night after full days of trying physical toil, which included digging trenches and carving chopsticks and toothpicks from lumber with raw hands."

I never thought I'd see anything that would make game companies selling game currency for real world currency look humane, but here it is. If you can buy it from the game company, then the gold farmers can only compete on cost. If it's not worth it for them to compete, they don't force prisoners to farm it.

In some of the games, you can be in an area with 200 people and be the only non-farmer or non-bot there. It's pretty sad.

Back when I was playing WoW (close to when it just came out) you knew the gold-farmers because they had Chinese names, spoke Chinese, and spent every waking moment in an area farming the exact same creatures. I picked up enough Chinese to be friendly to one of them (also a rogue) and say hello as we both farmed in an area - him for gold, myself for a rare crafting schematic. I'd help if he needed it and sometimes he'd help me. I guess I impressed enough of them in whatever hellhole they operate out of that occasionally one of them would run up to me and offer to trade me some bandages or just say hi.

I thought they were just friendly. Turns out I was probably their only non-beating interaction of the day. It also sets in now that my activity I used to do for fun was the exact same activity that some people do to avoid being beaten to death.

Whoa.

Just goes to show you that motivation is everything doesn't it?

Runners do the same thing people do to flee beatings - but they enjoy it because they do it on purpose to have fun...

Pretty much any hobby is 'work' for someone with a different motivation.

cgraves67:I never thought I'd see anything that would make game companies selling game currency for real world currency look humane, but here it is. If you can buy it from the game company, then the gold farmers can only compete on cost. If it's not worth it for them to compete, they don't force prisoners to farm it.

As long as that currency is also available for farming in a normal manner, I agree.

Planetside 2 does something like that currently. You can buy unlocks one piece at a time with real cash, or you can earn the "currency" that allows for it by playing the game. Haven't seen a farmer in that game yet.

Ug, I just picked up AION again after not playing for a while. You'd think in the 2 years since they launched the game the mods would have found a way to keep out the gold farmers... They're everywhere. They spam like mad... They set up their personal shops (their character plops down on a stool and puts up a sign) with their banner advertising their particular site...

Treygreen13:cgraves67: I never thought I'd see anything that would make game companies selling game currency for real world currency look humane, but here it is. If you can buy it from the game company, then the gold farmers can only compete on cost. If it's not worth it for them to compete, they don't force prisoners to farm it.

As long as that currency is also available for farming in a normal manner, I agree.

Planetside 2 does something like that currently. You can buy unlocks one piece at a time with real cash, or you can earn the "currency" that allows for it by playing the game. Haven't seen a farmer in that game yet.

In GW2, you can use $$$ to buy "gems" which can be converted into game gold (also gold into gems) or you can use it to buy fluff items. I had a few spams from farmers when the game came out, but I haven't had any for a while now. Either they can't compete or the game is dying.

why are we not doing this in America? Lets put American prisoners to work doing this, and send all the money they make back into the corrections system. That way less of our tax dollars would go to paying for these degenerates!

Plus they learn a nifty new skill they can use once they're free! win-win baby!

It's the first I've heard of it so what difference does it make? I'd rather read an interesting piece of old news than half the crap that gets greened because someone thought up a clever headline for a boring or pointless story.

Honest Bender:Ug, I just picked up AION again after not playing for a while. You'd think in the 2 years since they launched the game the mods would have found a way to keep out the gold farmers... They're everywhere. They spam like mad... They set up their personal shops (their character plops down on a stool and puts up a sign) with their banner advertising their particular site...

It's not like money is even hard to get in the game...

Is it still practically impossible to report anyone for anything? The last time I bothered to log in, the in-game petitioning tool didn't work, so you had to go to their support website and open up a ticket to report someone for botting/spamming/whatever douchebaggery. And you could only have two tickets open at a time.

basscomm:Honest Bender: Ug, I just picked up AION again after not playing for a while. You'd think in the 2 years since they launched the game the mods would have found a way to keep out the gold farmers... They're everywhere. They spam like mad... They set up their personal shops (their character plops down on a stool and puts up a sign) with their banner advertising their particular site...

It's not like money is even hard to get in the game...

Is it still practically impossible to report anyone for anything? The last time I bothered to log in, the in-game petitioning tool didn't work, so you had to go to their support website and open up a ticket to report someone for botting/spamming/whatever douchebaggery. And you could only have two tickets open at a time.

That's way too much work for me.

It's easier to just block them. Takes 2 seconds. Every time I log in, there are 4 or 5 spammers to block. Then it quiets down for pretty much the whole rest of my gaming session. Takes 20 seconds. The alternative is spending minutes filling out tickets. Meh.

It's never the same character twice, so I assume they're getting blocked somehow. But they sit in the middle of each faction town and advertise their sites. All the mods would have to do is log in and take a quick look every hour. 5 minutes work.... *sigh* A man can dream.

cgraves67:Treygreen13: cgraves67: I never thought I'd see anything that would make game companies selling game currency for real world currency look humane, but here it is. If you can buy it from the game company, then the gold farmers can only compete on cost. If it's not worth it for them to compete, they don't force prisoners to farm it.

As long as that currency is also available for farming in a normal manner, I agree.

Planetside 2 does something like that currently. You can buy unlocks one piece at a time with real cash, or you can earn the "currency" that allows for it by playing the game. Haven't seen a farmer in that game yet.

In GW2, you can use $$$ to buy "gems" which can be converted into game gold (also gold into gems) or you can use it to buy fluff items. I had a few spams from farmers when the game came out, but I haven't had any for a while now. Either they can't compete or the game is dying.

Actually ArenaNet killed off [34,000](https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/mike-lewis-on-the-war-agai nst-the-bots/) of them about a month ago. The hilarious consequence of that was some hard to get items completely jumped up in price very quickly.

carnifex2005:cgraves67: Treygreen13: cgraves67: I never thought I'd see anything that would make game companies selling game currency for real world currency look humane, but here it is. If you can buy it from the game company, then the gold farmers can only compete on cost. If it's not worth it for them to compete, they don't force prisoners to farm it.

As long as that currency is also available for farming in a normal manner, I agree.

Planetside 2 does something like that currently. You can buy unlocks one piece at a time with real cash, or you can earn the "currency" that allows for it by playing the game. Haven't seen a farmer in that game yet.

In GW2, you can use $$$ to buy "gems" which can be converted into game gold (also gold into gems) or you can use it to buy fluff items. I had a few spams from farmers when the game came out, but I haven't had any for a while now. Either they can't compete or the game is dying.

Actually ArenaNet killed off [34,000](https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/mike-lewis-on-the-war-agai nst-the-bots/) of them about a month ago. The hilarious consequence of that was some hard to get items completely jumped up in price very quickly.

I'm so ashamed. I tried to add that link in Reddit style. Here's the link about ArenaNet's battle with bots.

Contents Under Pressure:Pocket_Fisherman: I now feel a little bad for killing the gold farmers in games I've played. I might have caused someone to be beaten with plastic pipes :(

I'm surprised any of them are on a pvp server.

Risk v. reward. The guys on PVE servers don't have the same push to one-up the other players, so they're less likely to buy gold and for less money. On the other hand, There WILL be players on any PVP server that make farmer-hunting a hobby.

this is why I play games like Skyrim. No teenage drama queens, no spammers, stalkers, pvp, forced to join guilds full of teenage drama queens just to level up, envy makes you shell out extra cash, etc.

Sure, my recycled Dremora Lord is like my only friend but ah ... er ... not sure where I was going with that. Well who needs friends when you've got a nice soundtrack.

Contents Under Pressure:Pocket_Fisherman: I now feel a little bad for killing the gold farmers in games I've played. I might have caused someone to be beaten with plastic pipes :(

I'm surprised any of them are on a pvp server.

100 plat on nagafen gets you 150-200 plat on non pvp servers when trading other people....i would think that the farmers charge more for plat/gold on pvp servers since there is extra risk...you die in pvp you lose 60% of the money you carry to the person or group that killed you.

And last time i was in eq2 there was no safe zones left in cities everything was an open pvp zone.....as it should be.

Most of that problem has been taken care of in Everquest now..They still pop up from time to timein /OOC but they are removed pretty quickly..The economic dynamic in EQ isn't a single system of currency as it was. Now there are multiple currencies and exchange items depending upon the people yourdoing commerce with and where and for whom your doing quests.So any single farming of a currencytype wouldn't be very worthwhile.

ProfessorOhki:Contents Under Pressure: Pocket_Fisherman: I now feel a little bad for killing the gold farmers in games I've played. I might have caused someone to be beaten with plastic pipes :(

I'm surprised any of them are on a pvp server.

Risk v. reward. The guys on PVE servers don't have the same push to one-up the other players, so they're less likely to buy gold and for less money. On the other hand, There WILL be players on any PVP server that make farmer-hunting a hobby.

It's even more fun to find ways to get farmers and bots killed on PvE servers, since you can't just do it yourself. Good times.